Privacy and data protection

The data controller is Architecture Social Limited (company number 10430707), with its registered office at Wework 1 Fore St Avenue, Barbican, London, England, EC2Y 9DT.

Stephen Drew, Founder, is the Data Protection Lead. For privacy questions or rights requests, email privacy@architecturesocial.com. Architecture Social is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under reference ZA916095.

This notice covers information used when you:

• browse Architecture Social and use its search or Explore;
• create or use a member account;
• submit an enquiry, profile, claim or other website form;
• use ArchGPT or request a skills assessment;
• apply for a role or ask us to help with your job search; or
• engage Architecture Social to recruit for your organisation.

Public Explore information and private recruitment information are kept separate. Candidate CVs and applications are never published or added to a public member profile.

Browsing and service operation

Our hosting and security providers process ordinary request information such as IP address, device and browser details, requested pages, timestamps and diagnostic data so the website can be delivered, protected and monitored. If you enable Measurement, Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights process aggregate usage and performance information.

Accounts

When member sign-in is available, Clerk provides authentication. Depending on how you sign in, Clerk and the selected identity provider may process your name, email address, account identifier, verification state and session information. The website stores the minimum member record needed to connect that verified identity to your account; it does not store social-provider access tokens.

Forms, profiles and claims

Website enquiries can include the details you enter and are stored in the private website administration system. Approved profile information, such as a name, professional title, biography, portrait, practice and selected work, may be published when you ask us to make it public or when an approved public record from our directory is published. Claim and moderation information is restricted to authorised staff.

ArchGPT and team enquiries

When you send a message to ArchGPT, we process the current conversation, the relevant page path and page context so the service can answer. We use an IP address or signed-in member identity to apply temporary access and abuse limits. Where ArchGPT uses an external AI model, the conversation and page context are sent through Vercel AI Gateway to OpenAI when that route is configured, and otherwise directly to OpenAI. The model may use web search to answer time-sensitive questions.

Architecture Social does not add an ordinary ArchGPT conversation to your member profile or create a persistent member chat history. If you explicitly confirm a team enquiry, we store your name if provided, email address, message, conversation summary and page path in the private website administration system. When configured, Resend sends the staff notification and Slack can receive the same notification. If spoken replies are available and you choose one, the reply text is sent to ElevenLabs to create the audio.

Skills assessments

If you request a Revit skills assessment, we collect your name, email address, optional current role, experience level and assessment choice. When the live KnowledgeSmart route is enabled, we send your name, email address and selected assessment to KnowledgeSmart so it can issue and score the assessment and email the invite. Otherwise, the request stays in the private website workflow. The private website record can include provider identifiers, invite status, an invite link, score and certificate metadata. It does not contain a CV or application answers. Resend may send related transactional email.

For a staff-arranged assessment, the result may also be added to the exact RecruitCRM candidate record and its certificate filed in Microsoft SharePoint, but only when those completion routes are enabled.

Preferences

The website can store theme, accessibility and privacy choices in your browser. Authentication, staff preview and security features may use necessary cookies. See the cookie and storage notice for more detail.

External media and maps

If you enable External media, approved YouTube, Bunny Stream, Vimeo, Loom, Wistia and Transistor services can receive request, device and playback information. This includes podcast audio requested from Transistor's delivery network; episode cover artwork is served from architecturesocial.com and needs no third-party request. External media and directory maps remain blocked before the corresponding choice.

Job-area maps load automatically on a first visit. CARTO receives the technical requests needed to deliver and secure map images, including IP address, browser details and the website origin, but not the job page path or query string. These image requests do not exchange CARTO cookies or authentication credentials. The map shows only an approximate area, not a precise employer address or your device location. A saved Maps refusal also blocks job maps; loading a map does not grant optional consent. If you enable directory maps, CARTO or OpenFreeMap receives the requests needed for those maps.

A postcode is sent to Postcodes.io only when you deliberately use a postcode radius or commute lookup. See the cookie and storage notice for the current provider inventory and controls.

Candidate information

• name, email address, phone number and address;
• CV, portfolio, employment history, qualifications and skills;
• role preferences, salary expectations, availability and interview notes;
• placement history, references and right-to-work information where required; and
• recordings and transcripts of telephone calls with us.

Client information

• representative names, contact details and job titles;
• organisation, vacancy, salary and hiring-plan information;
• commercial agreements and placement records; and
• recordings and transcripts of telephone calls with us.

We collect information from you, from your organisation and from public professional sources such as LinkedIn, company websites and professional directories. If we first obtain your details from another source, we will explain this when we contact you.

If you sign in, you can separately choose to save reusable application answers in our private recruitment system. Saved answers remain editable, are not added to your public member profile and are used only when you choose to load them into a future application. Cover letters and consent choices are not saved as reusable defaults.

Calls may be recorded and transcribed to keep accurate notes. You will hear an announcement before connection and can ask not to be recorded at the start of the call.

Where consent is the basis, you can withdraw it. This does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal.

Architecture Social works in a specialist market where careers and client relationships can continue over many years. Candidate, client and placement records are therefore retained on an ongoing basis under legitimate interests, supported by a documented assessment reviewed by the business.

If we erase a recruitment record, we may retain a minimal suppression record, such as a name and email address, so our team does not unknowingly contact you again.

The providers used depend on the feature you request and which optional delivery routes are enabled. Access is limited according to each provider's role. They include:

• Vercel, Neon, Clerk and Vercel Blob for website hosting, the website database, member authentication and approved public media;
• Vercel AI Gateway and OpenAI for live ArchGPT model responses and web search, with ElevenLabs used only when spoken replies are enabled and requested;
• Resend for transactional email, confirmed team-enquiry notifications and enabled direct applications, with Slack used only when the optional staff notification is configured;
• KnowledgeSmart for requested skills-assessment invitations and results when its live route is enabled, with RecruitCRM and Microsoft SharePoint used for staff-arranged completion records only when those routes are enabled; and
• RecruitCRM, Replit and approved security services for established ATS records, managed recruitment workflows, optional private reusable answers and application-attachment screening where the relevant route is enabled.

A direct application is emailed privately to the hiring contact and copied to Architecture Social when direct delivery is enabled. A managed application is handled in the private recruitment workflow. Neither route stores a CV in the public website database or public media storage.

Optional public-page providers include Vercel for measurement, Google / YouTube, Bunny Stream, Vimeo, Loom (an Atlassian service), Wistia and Transistor for external media, and CARTO and OpenFreeMap for maps. Postcodes.io receives a postcode only for a lookup you request. Those optional routes are described in the cookie and storage notice and are not treated as essential page content.

Providers act under contractual and security controls. Some process information outside the UK. Where the UK transfer rules apply, we use an available UK adequacy regulation or an approved safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum, and carry out the required transfer assessment. Email privacy@architecturesocial.com to ask which safeguard applies or how to obtain a copy.

Candidate information is shared with a prospective employer only after the candidate agrees to that named submission. We do not sell personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law gives you rights to:

• access the information held about you;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask for erasure or restriction;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive portable information where the right applies; and
• withdraw consent.

You can always object to direct marketing. Email privacy@architecturesocial.com to make a request. We normally respond within one month.

Please contact us first if you are concerned about how information has been handled. If the issue is not resolved, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or call 0303 123 1113.

We update this notice when the service or the way information is used changes. This is privacy notice v1.4. The date at the top identifies when this revision came into force.